Infections rising as lost lives are remembered
Flags at half-staff as US deaths during pandemic reach 1 million
“To everyone who lost a loved one — whether it be a mother, father, sibling, child, grandparent, friend, neighbor, or other loved one — I offer my deepest condolences and pray for each of them.” — Gov. Ned Lamont
In Hartford, as across the country, flags were lowered to half-staff Thursday to mark 1 million deaths from COVID19 in the United States. “Today, our country marks a heartbreaking milestone — 1 million American lives lost to COVID-19,” Gov. Ned Lamont said. “To everyone who lost a loved one — whether it be a mother, father, sibling, child, grandparent, friend, neighbor or other loved one — I offer my deepest condolences and pray for each of them.”
Lamont echoed a proclamation issued by President Joe Biden, who mourned the pandemic’s victims and called for a renewed commitment to fighting COVID-19 while at the second global summit aimed at stopping the virus.
“Today, we mark a tragic milestone: 1 million American lives lost to COVID-19,” Biden said. “One million empty chairs around the dinner table, each an irreplaceable loss, each leaving behind a family, a community and a nation forever changed because of this pandemic.”
Johns Hopkins University has tallied just shy of 999,000 confirmed U.S. deaths since the start of the pandemic, with the nation expected to reach the 1 million milestone over the next few days. Biden ordered the flag
remain at half-staff through the end of Monday. Johns Hopkins reports 6.3 million global deaths.
Connecticut has had 10,883 Covid-related deaths, with 25 in the past week, as the current surge in infections continues.
The state also saw an increase in hospitalizations — up 58 to 291 people hospitalized with a confirmed case of coronavirus. Officials note that many of them are incidental, meaning patients were admitted for something unrelated and then diagnosed once they arrived.
The increases follow a rise in cases that is difficult to quantify. The state reported 9,606 positive tests in the past seven days out of 72,531 administered, for a positivity rate of 13.24%. That number is not precise, as many people now test for COVID at home and do not report their results.
Several factors are responsible for the rise in cases, Scott Roberts, assistant medical director for infection prevention at Yale New Haven Hospital, said Thursday afternoon.
“We’re probably seeing a lot of things, [including] a combination of waning immunity either from vaccines or previous infections,” he said.
Many people who received a booster shot more than six months ago, have lessened protection. In addition, the dominant variant in Connecticut — BA.2.12 — is more transmissible than previous variants.
“The double whammy there is leading to a surge in infections,” Roberts said. “The good news is the vast majority of cases continue to be mild. We still do have people who need to be hospitalized, likely because they are either unvaccinated or elderly or immune-compromised.”
Still, Roberts said vaccines are expected to continue to offer protection against severe levels of illness and death, both from existing variants and those still to come.
“For that reason we continue to recommend people get vaccinated,” he said.
Vaccine requirements, along with mask mandates, were dropped at the end of this winter’s devastating omicron surge. Despite the case increase, officials have said they’re not looking to impose new mandates.
Of children in schools, Roberts said, “Personally, I am worried. We know kids have much more mild disease and probably don’t transmit as much as adults, but when you put kids together in a close space without masks, you have an opportunity for increased infection ... our trend week by week continues to go in the wrong direction.”
COVID has so far been hard to predict, Roberts said, but previous waves have been on two-month cycles, meaning the current wave could subside soon.
“I think the warm weather will really help, like last summer when cases were really low,” he said. “It makes me optimistic. But for the next week or two this subvariant is 30% more transmissible than even BA.2.”